<^^>\\ 



MEMOIR 



OF 



CYRUS PEIRCE, 



FIRST PRINCIPAL OF THE FIRST STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 



BY REV. SAMUEL J. MAY. 



'i'M^' 



REPRINTED FROM 

BAKNARD'S AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 

FOR DECEMBER, 1857. 

HARTFORD:— P. C. BROWNELL. 



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/7. / 



MEMOIR 



OF 



CTEUS PEIECE, 



FIRST PRINCIPAL OF FIRST STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 



BY REV. SAMUEL J. MAY. 



REPRINTED FROM 

BARNARD'S AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 

FOR DECEMBER, 1857. 

HARTFORD:— F. C. BROWNELL. 



.'^"^ 



A 



\>\S^ 






The following Memoir of Cyrus Pkirce, the first Principal of the 
first State Normal Scliool in the United States, was prepared for Barn- 
ard's American Journal of Education at the request of the Editor, and 
is reprinted in pamphlet form for tlie gratification of the personal friends 
of Mr. Peirce, and the numerous graduates of the Institution which he 
organized and conducted. 



I. MEMOIR OF CYRUS PEIRCE. 



BY KEV. SAMUEL J. MAY. 



Cyrus Peirce, for fifty years a teaclier in schools of dift'ereiit 
grades, and, for eight years, a " teacher of teachers," as the first Princi- 
pal of the first Normal School in the United States, was born Au- 
gust loth, 1790, in the town of AValthani, Massachusetts, the youngest 
of twelve children of the same parents. He spent his boyhood at 
home, on the retired farm, which his father and ancestors, for several 
generations before him, had cultivated. His physical constitution, 
hereditarily sound, was confirmed by the pure air, wholesome food, 
genial sights and sounds, early hours of retirement and rising, and by 
a due participation in the toils and the sports of country life. He 
enjoyed the good influences of a well-ordered family, and of a steady, 
judicious parental discipline. 

At a very early age, he was sent to the district school, and went 
through the dull routine then usually pursued with little children. 
The only intimation we have been able to gather from his childhood, 
that was at all prognostic of his manhood, is that, when only five or 
six years of age, he thought his teacher was not judicious, was not 
teaching him as much as she should, nor giving her instructions in 
the best manner. He intimated that, at some future time, lie should 
himself keep school, and then he would show how it ought to be done. 
Very probably, some impression, made upon his mind at that early 
day, did give the direction to his course in life. 

Perceiving his inclination to though tfulness and study, his parents 
determined to give him a collegiate eduation. Accordingly he was 
sent to Framingham Academy, and afterward was placed under the 
tuition of Rev. Dr. Stearns, of Lincoln, at that time reputed to be a 
thorough scholar. 

In 1806, Cyrus Peirce entered Harvard College. There he soon 
gained, and, to the end of his course, maintained the reputation of a 
pure, upright young man, a faithful, indefatigable student, and an 
accurate, though not a brilliant recitation, scholar. One of his class- 
mates has favored me with the following account of him at that 
time : 

The uniform success of Cyrus Peirce, in wliatever he undertook, was owing 
to his singular fideUty and perseverance. No one could have been more faithful, 



6 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

patient, persevering, than he was. "Whatever the subject of study might be, 
his mind took hold of it with a tenacious grasp, and never let go, until he had 
reached a satisfactory result. In this particular, I have never known his equal. 
The action of his intellect was ratlier slow, but he investigated thoroughly and 
reasoned soundly. I therefore always considered his statement of facts, un- 
questionably true; and his opinions as entitled to especial regard. His very 
studious, as weU as reserved habits, kept^ini nmch of the time in his room. At 
recitations, from which he was never absent, no one gave better evidence of a 
faithful attention to the exercises, in whatever department they might be. He 
always showed,* when " taken up," that he had " got the lesson." Yet, owing 
to his great modesty, his slow utterance, his entire lack of the faculty of " show- 
ing off," he did not pass for half his real worth as a scholar. He was thorough 
in whatever he undertook. He was inquisitive and candid. The exact truth 
was his object ; and he patiently removed every obstacle in the way of his 
attaining what lie sought. 

During his Sophomore year, in the winter of 1807-8, Cyrus 
Peirce commenced his labors as a school-teacher, in the village of 
West Newton, the same town, and not far from the very spot, to 
which he came, nearly fifty years afterward, to close his career, and 
crown his brow with the last of those unfading laurels, which encircle 
it, in the eyes of all who have felt or seen his influence as a Teacher 
of Teachers. 

In order to appreciate duly the value of his services, one must 
know what was the character of our common, especially our rural 
district schools, fifty years ago. Those who commenced their edu- 
cation since maps and globes were introduced ; since the exclusive 
right of Dilworth's and Webster's Spelling Books, and Morse's 
(xeography, and Dabol's Arithmetic, to the honor of text-books, was 
disputed ; since blackboards were invented, or belts of black plaster- 
ing, called blackboards, have come to be considered indispensable in 
our school-rooms ; those who commenced their education since Josiah 
Holbrook's, and such like simple apparatus, intimated to teachers how 
much more intelligible and attractive, visible illustrations are than 
verbal descriptions, — how much more easily any thing which is uu- 
derstood is grasped bj^ the mind, and held in the memory; especially 
those who have commenced their career since Warren Colburn made 
so plain, so self-evident, " the recondite powers and mysterious rela- 
tions of numbers," — showed how much of Arithmetic may be learnt 
from one's own fingers, — how many problems may be solved without 
having " learnt the rules," — solved by the intuitive deductions of any 
mind that understands the premises ; those who did not live until 
after Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, William Russell, William A. 
Alcott, Alonzo Potter, S. S. Randall, Samuel Lewis, Warren Burton, 
and their zealous fellow-laborers, had awakened the community 
throughout New England, New York, Ohio, to the consideration of 

* Throughout his college course, he made himself master of every lesson but one, at the 
time ; and that one he learnt afterward. 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 7 

the inestimable importance of common schools ; of the indispensable 
necessity of convenient, light, airy, warm, well-ventilated school-rooms, 
comfortable seats and desks, suitable text-books and blackboards, 
maps, globes, apparatus ; and, more than all, well-prepared, skillful 
and amiable teachers ; in short,' those whose " school days " began 
within the last twenty-five years, can have little idea of the character 
of our common, especially our country district schools, at the time 
Cyrus Peirce commenced his labors. 

Thanks to the gentleman last named in the above list of distin- 
guished friends of education and school reformers, thanks to Mr. 
Warren Burton, there has been preserved a most truthful and graphic 
picture of " The District School as it was." In the volume bearing 
this title, written by Mr. Burton twenty-five years ago, he has given 
accurate, lively sketches of methods, scenes, and characters, that were 
common in the schools, as they were when he was a child, and not 
wholly extinct when he took his pen to delineate them. His book 
has been republished several times in this country, and once in Eng- 
land. It should never be out of print, nor be wanting in any of our 
public or 25rivate libraries, but kept at hand, that the children of this 
and coming generations may be informed, how many more, and how 
much greater, are the advantages provided for them, than were 
enjoyed by their parents and grand-parents, when young ; so that they 
may be prompted to inquire who have been their benefactors, that 
they may do them honor. Then, I am sure, few will be found to de- 
serve a higher place in their esteem, than the subject of this memoir. 

Immediately on leaving college, in 1810, Mr. Peirce accepted an 
invitation, from an association of gentlemen at Nantucket, to take 
charge of a private school. He taught there two years very success- 
fully, and gained the entire confidence and sincere respect of all who 
witnessed his impartial regard for those committed to his care, and 
his scrupulous fidelity to every duty he undertook to discharge. But 
at that time his heart was set on another profession. So, in 1812, he 
returned to Cambridge, to complete his preparation for the Christian 
ministry. For three years he prosecuted his theological studies, with 
an assiduity not surpassed, it is believed, by any one, who ever dwelt 
Avithin the walls of Harvard. He seldom allowed himself more than 
four hours out of the twenty-four for sleep ; and he preserved his 
health by strict attention to his diet and exercise. He never ate and 
drank merely to gratify his appetite, but to keep his body in the best 
condition to subserve the action of his mind. Every subject that came 
up for consideration, in the course prescribed, he studied until he was 
satisfied that he had arrived at the truth. Many of the dogmas 



g CYRUS PEIRCE. 

taught ill the churches before that day, he was led to distrust ; but 
he rejected nothing hastily. If he, like most other young men, could 
give no sufficient reason for the faith of his childhood, be dismissed 
nothing from his mind, which he had been taught to believe, until he 
could give a satisfactory reason for dismissing it. He was most 
scrupulously conscientious. He was severe in his demands upon him- 
self; and, wherever truth and right were concerned, not indulgent to 
others. Yet am I assured by those who knew him best, that he was 
cheerful, amiable, tender in his sensibilities, and very companionable. 

After three years thus spent in theological studies at Cambridge, 
Mr. Peirce was persuaded to return to Nantucket, and resume the 
work of a teacher. His former patrons had not found another, who 
could adequately fill his place. During his previous labors in their 
service, he had given them intimations of ability and skill in the 
work of teaching, which they were anxious to secure for the benefit 
of their children, even at a much greater cost. 

Under this second engagement, Mr. Peirce continued at Nantucket 
three years, laboring as the teacher of a private school, with great 
success, and to the entire satisfaction of most of his pupils, and all 
of their parents. In 1818 he left, and commenced preaching. 

Up to this period Mr. Peirce was not only strict in his government, 
but severe in his discipline. In the outset of his career, he very natur- 
ally resorted to those instrumentalities that had hitherto been most 
confidently relied on. Until after the first quarter of the present cen- 
tury, corporal punishments of children, by parents and schoolmasters, 
were matters of frequent occurrence. I could fill more than all the 
pages that will be occupied by this memoir, with narratives stored in 
my memory, or preserved in files of old newspapers, or in the Crim- 
inal Court Records, of cases of cruel chastisement of children, — girls 
as well as boys, — by ferules, rattans, cowhides, stocks, pillories, im- 
prisonment, privation of food, and so forth. Little do they realize, 
who- have been born within the last twenty-five years, how much they 
may have escaped of suffering, as well as of weariness at school ; and 
how much they have gained from the greatly improved methods of 
teaching and governing, that have been devised since the commence- 
ment of that period. And it ought to be told them, that to no indi- 
vidual are they, and the coming generations, more indebted for these 
improvements than to Mr. Peirce. When he commenced the work of 
a schoolmaster, the idea of managing a school without corporal pun- 
ishment had hardly dawned upon the mind of any one. On 
Nantucket especially, the people were faniiliai-, in the whaling service, 
with severe bodily chastisements ; and the proposal to manage "a 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 9 

parcel of boys," without any thing of the sort, would have been 
deemed preposterous. It was reasonable and j^roper that the young 
pedagogue should begin with the regime then most approved. And 
it was natural for Cyrus Peirce to try faithfully what he tried at all. 
I can therefore believe that, in good faith, he did, when an inexpe- 
rienced young man, inflict some chastisements that, at any time since 
1830, he would utterly have condemned. It is not easy for those, who 
have only seen and enjoyed the excellent schools on Nantucket within 
the last twenty-five years, to conceive of them as they were in 1810, 
when Mr, Peirce first went there. His work was really that of a 
pioneer. If he did any good there, it was done by first establishing 
order, a regular and punctual attendance, prompt and exact obedience 
to rules, and faithful, hard study as indispensahle in a school. If he 
effected this by means of severe appliances, uncalled for at the present 
day, when better views prevail, they were then so much matters of 
course, that most of his early puj)ils, from whom I have received 
letters, have not alluded to his severity as censurable. Indeed, only 
one has even mentioned it. They all bear witness to his exceeding 
strictness, — but only one tells me of any inflictions of severe bodily 
chastisements. 

Mr. Peirce was careful to prescribe a reasonable task to his pupils, 
one that would try their powers, as he thought they ought to be tried 
in order to be improved ; and then he was unyielding in his demand 
for the exact performance of it. Not partly right, but " wholly, pre- 
cisely right," was what he always required. " Study enough will 
make a pupil master of any thing he is capable of learning," was one 
of his maxims. " Boys who can study, but will not study, must be 
made to study," was another. Order, " Heaven's fi^rst law," he deemed 
indispensable in a school ; and he enforced it : he would have it. He 
excused no intentional deviation from it ; even accidental violations 
were not readily deemed excusable. Caj-elessness was to be blamed, 
punished. His pupils were sent to him to be improved ; to acquire 
valuable knowledge, and to form good habits, mental, moral, physical. 
He was determined their parents and the community should not be 
disappointed through any remissness of his ; and that his pupils should 
not be allowed, for the sake of any present self-indulgence in idleness 
or fun, or through carelessness, to cheat themselves of that informa- 
tion, or of those excellencies of character, which they ought, in child- 
hood and youth, to secure for the benefit of their whole lives, here and 
hereafter. He adopted, at first, the so-called " good, old method " 
of governing a school, and making boys obey and learn ; the method, 
which, it was taken for granted in that day, Solomon meant to 



10 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

commend, when he said, " He that spareth his rod hateth his son.'' 

And in this, as in every thing else, " whatsoever his hands found to do, 

he did with his might." But corporal punishments were not then 

the characteristic of his school. 

One of the contemporaries of the gentleman, who alone has made 

any mention of his severity, gives me the following accoujat of the 

commencement of her acquaintance with Mr. Peirce : 

It was in 1815, that myself and another girl, each under sixteen years of age, 
were wending our way to the academy, where Mr. Peirce presided, to become 
his pupils. We had conceived a strong prejudice against the man, expecting to 
find him an austere, hard master, rigid and exacting ; who would not be satisfied 
with our best efforts, and would be unmerciful to our failings. Under this strange, 
very wrong impression, we strengthened each other, as we went ; and met him 
well braced, — resolutely determined, if he did not suit us much better than we 
expected, that we would leave his school, and that too, speedily. 

In the course of that memorable forenoon, he questioned his new 
pupil upon the branches of learning in which she presumed herself 
to be quite a profficient ; and, without intimating that he meant to do 
so, made her fully sensible of her ignorance. Coming, last, to the 
subject of grammar, and finding her deficient in that also, he gave her 
to parse the following sentence, — " What I know not, teach thou me." 
She took the hint. She appreciated the delicacy, and began to love 
the man, whom a few hours before she expected to hate ; and to rev- 
erence one, " whose small head could carry all he knew." My corres- 
pondent adds : 

I shall always look back to the time passed in Mr. Peirce's school, as one of the 
best and happiest periods of my life, lie inspired me with new views, new mo- 
tives, a new thirst for knowledge ; in short, he opened an almost new terrestrial 
world to me ; and, over and above all, he was the one who awoke in my mind a 
deep interest in religion. Exact, cheerful obedience to all the laws of God, he 
made appear tome a most reasonable service. My understanding was convinced, 
my feelings were enlisted, and, by judicious management and careful nurture, he 
led me onward and upward, until I sincerely think, I obtained, through his minis- 
tration, " that hope which is an anchor to the soul, based upon the rock of ages." 
I shall, therefore, always love and respect Cyrus Peirce, as my spiritual guide and 
father. 

Very similar to the above are the testimonies that have been given 
me, in letters or orally, by hundreds of the pupils of Mr. Peirce, from 
the beginning to the end of his career. He kindly, yet effectually 
made them sensible of their ignorance, and of their moral deficiencies. 
He satisfied them of his ability to teach them more than they knew, 
and to lead them in the way to eternal life. He prescribed to them 
tasks that they were able to perform ; he gave them rules of moral 
conduct, to which it was right that they should conform themselves ; 
and he never remitted any of his demands. He held them steadfast- 
ly to the exactly true and right. Precision was the characteristic 
of all his dealings, and all his requirements. His methods of inducing 



CYRUS PEIRCE. H 

his pupils to study, to get their lessons and recite them well, changed 
as he grew wiser by experience, and learnt more of the nature of the 
human mind and heart. But the object he aimed at, and the spirit 
that animated him, were the same, from the beginning. 

About a year after his return to Nantucket, Mr. Peirce mari'ied 
Miss Harriet Coffin, of that place. She had been for several months 
one of his most distinguished pupils ; and everywhere, ever since, she 
has been his most intelligent, devoted, effective helpmeet. He could 
hardly have accomplished all he has, in the cause of education, if he 
had not been blessed with such a wife. 

In 1818, as has been already stated, Mr. Peirce left Nantucket and 
commenced preaching. In the course of the following year, he was 
ordained and settled as the minister of a church, in the town of 
North Reading, Massachusetts. 

Eight years he hved there, faithfully discharging all his parochial 
and social duties. lie was universally acknowledged to be a man 
of singular integrity and purity of life. His jireaching was sensible, 
earnest and direct. As in the school-room, so in the pulpit, his main 
object was the discovery and the inculcation of the truth. He would 
tolerate no violation of it in word or deed. He dwelt less upon the 
dogmas of his sect than u])on the precepts of Christ and his Apostles ; 
always holding up the life and death — the character of Jesus — as the 
illustration of that godliness to which all men ought to aspire. 

Mr. Peirce saw, and did not fail to show, how far the men of his 
generation, even the most zealously professing Christians, fell short of 
the stature of Christ. He deeply felt the need of reform, and that it 
should begin in the so-called house of God. He was among the 
first to embrace the opinions of the apostolic Worcester, respecting 
the custom of war ; and he assiduously inculcated the pacific spirit of 
the Gospel, which has been quenched by the ambition of Christian 
nations. 

So, also, the cause of Temperance, the principle of total abstinence 
from intoxicating drinks, is indebted to him, as one among its earliest, 
most consistent advocates. He was in advance of his generation, and 
therefore shared somewhat in the unpopularity, the obloquy, the hard- 
ships of the pioneers in the moral world. Not being an easy, attract- 
ive public speaker, those who were annoyed by his uncompromising 
demands of personal conformity to the example of Christ, could the 
more easily divert from him the attention of many, whom he longed 
to benefit. He came to feel, as very many faithful preachers have 
been made to feel, that he was spending his time and strength to too 
little purpose. He suspected that he was not called to preach, so 



22 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

much as to teach. Yet more was he persuaded that it would be 
easier to prevent the children from becoming vicious, than he had 
found it to reform those who bad contracted bad habits of action or 
thought. These considerations, operating together with some theo- 
logical disagreements between himself and a portion of the people, 
magnified, if not aggravated, by the heated controversies which were 
so rife in that day, brought him to the determination to relinquish 
his ministerial profession. At the expiration of eight years, there- 
fore, he resigned his charge in North Reading, and returned to 
" school keeping," as that which should thenceforward be the business 
of his life. 

He was earnestly solicited to return again to Nantucket, and resume 
his labors there. But he was induced rather to unite with a relative, 
Mr. Simeon Putnam, in the conduct of a school at North Andover. 
His views of the true methods of teaching, and still more of govern- 
ing pupils, had undergone some essential changes during the eight 
years of his retirement, owing to the observations he was continually 
making, all that while, as a diligent supervisor of the schools in 
Reading. But his colleague adhered to the old methods and appli- 
ances. Their discordance on these and other points was embarrassing 
to them both. Therefore, after four years of arduous toil at North 
Andover, he listened to the repeated and earnest solicitations of those 
who had appreciated his former labors on Nantucket, and, in 1831, 
removed once more to that island. I can not express the very high 
esteem generally entertained for Mr. Peirce, throughout that commu- 
nity, better than in the words, which I am permitted to quote from a 
gentleman of great respectability, and long official standing. " There 
has been no period," said he to Mr. Peirce, in 1830, " since you left 
the island in 1812, when you could not have had a school here, of 
any number of pupils that you would have undertaken to teach, and 
at any price you would have thought it fair to charge." 

This was not the exaggeration of a friend. His return was most 
cordially welcomed. He immediately found himself at the head of a 
large and lucrative school, in the instruction and management of 
which, for more than six years, he was every way eminently successful. 
During the whole of that period, he scarcely ever found it necessary 
to apply corporal punishment of any kind. He had come to regard 
it as the " last resort," and a very sad one, arguing some deficiency 
of the requisite qualifications in the teacher, as well as uncommon 
perversity in the pupil. He relied upon other means, higher persua- 
sions, moral influences. How sincerely he was respected and loved by 
his pupils of that period, the best of them, if not all, may be inferred 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 23 

from the following extract from a letter I have received from a gentle- 
man, now at the head of a most beneficent educational institution 
in Massachusetts : 

It is twenty-three or four years since I was one of Mr. Peirce's pupils, on 
Nantucket. His name has ever been, and ever will be, fragrant in my recollec- 
tion. His was the first school that I really loved to attend ; and he was the first 
teacher for whom I felt a positive affection. * * * Mr. Peirce was eminent- 
ly successful in discovering whether a pupil comprehended what he was endeavor- 
ing to learn, or the language of the lesson he was reciting. Under his method 
of teaching, I first began to understand what I was about at school. He would 
not allow us to conceal our ignorance, or seem to know what we did not. Pie 
would probe us through and through, and expose our superficialness. Be- 
cause I began to understand my text-books, I began to feel the exhilarating love 
of learning for its own sake. I had l)ecn to school all my days before ; but it 
had been, until then, a mechanical work to me. I can distinctly recollect this 
blessed change in my mental condition. It was a new birth. A dispensation of 
intellectual and moral life and light came upon me. Mr. Peirce seemed to me to 
see through a boy, — to read his thoughts, — to divine his motives. No one could 
deceive him; and it always seemed exceedingly foolish, as well as mean, to 
attempt to deceive him, because he was so evidently the best friend of us all. I 
can .see him now, — moving rapidly but without noise about the school-room, always 
alive to the highest good of every one ; quickening our pulses, every time he ap- 
proached us, by some word of encouragement ; inspiring us with the determination 
necessary to attain the object at which he pointed. 

Mr. Peirce was very skillful in discovering the mental aptitudes of a pupil, and 
drawing him out in the direction in which he was most likely to attain excellence ; 
thus exhibiting a boy's powers to himself, making him conscious of the ability to be 
somebody, and do something. I can not give you particular examples, nor narrate 
to you any single events in the history of that part of my life, which was blessed by 
his direct influence. The hours I passed in his school-room at Nantucket are the 
sunniest in the memory of my school days. But the elements entering into the 
enjoyment and profit of those days, blend together in my memory, and lose their 
distinctness, as the colors of the rainbow sharle into each other. 

This most excellent private school Mr. Peirce continued to teach 
for six years ; assisted at first by his admirable wife, and afterward by 
others, whom he had likewise educated and trained for the work of 
teaching. It is said of General Washington, that " he evinced his 
wisdom and skill not more in what he did himself, than in his selection 
of those, to whom he committed the execution of any important duty." 
A similar praise is due to Mr. Peirce. He never would employ an 
assistant, whom he did not know to be thoroughly competent and 
heartily disposed to teach well. " No man," he would say, " can shift 
off any of his responsibility. A teacher is bound to make it sure, that 
all the instruction given in his school shall be thorough, exact: 'Qui 
facit per alium facit perse,'" and he would do all the teaching himself, 
unless he could find others, who would do a part of his work as well as, 
or better than, himself. He was, therefore, always blessed with able 
assistants, when he had any. Among those who aided him, at the 
time of which I am now writing, was Miss Maria Mitchell, who had 
been his pupil, and who has since attained a world-wide fame as an 
astronomer. 



14 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

All the while Mr. Peirce was conducting so beneficently and ac- 
ceptably this private school, he was exerting himself assiduously to 
effect the better organization and appointment of the public schools of 
Nantucket. Indeed he was alive to all the true interests of the com- 
munity, in which he then intended to spend the residue of his earthly 
life. He suggested, or promptly encouraged and generously assisted, 
various plans of social improvement. He took so active a part in 
the temperance reform, as to incur the charge of fanaticism. Intem- 
perance was then a very prevalent vice upon the island. Some use 
of' intoxicating drinks was assumed there, as everywhere else, in that 
day, to be a necessity ; and it was claimed that even a pretty free 
use of it should be readily excused in those who were exposed to the 
hardships and ennui of long whaling voyages. Mr. Peirce was 
among the first to discover the utter delusion, that had got possession 
of the people, res^jecting the use of ardent spirits. He satisfied him- 
self that alcohol, in whatever form it might be disguised, contained no 
nutritious qualities, imparted no enduring strength, but only stimu- 
lated those who drank it to undue and therefore injurious efforts, 
which impaired their vital energy. Ho therefore espoused the princi- 
ple of total abstinence ; and not only commended it by his example, 
but urged it with great earnestness upon all, in private conversations 
and in public speeches. On one occasion, in a very large meeting, 
surrounded by his fellow-townsmen, most of whom had been addicted 
to the use of ardent spirits more or less, some of them excessively, 
Mr. Peirce exposed, with the utmost plainness, the evils they had 
brought, and were then bringing upon themselves and their depend- 
ents, by that indulgence; and then declared that so deplorable were 
the eifects produced everywhere throughout that community, and the 
country, by spirituous liquors, that he could and would no longer give 
his countenance to the use of them in any measure, on any occasion, 
for «>?.?/ purpose. "No," said he, with an emphasis and solemnity 
that made his audience tremble, " if my life could be saved by no 
other instrumentality than that of spirituous liquor, I would forego it 
and die, in testimony of my dread and abhorrence of this enemy of 
the health, peace, and virtue of mankind." This was the noble, the 
holy spirit, which animated the Apostle Paul in regard to the same 
vice. Some scouted, mocked him as a fanatic ; but others were 
deeply impressed, lastingly effected by his words and his example. 

Mr. Peirce, however, was known and made himself felt on the sub- 
ject of education, more than on any other. He had come to be an 
authority, on all questions pertaining to schools. In pursuance of his 
urgent advice, in accordance with a plan devised mainly by him, at 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 15 

length tlae public schools of Nantucket were so arranged, in relation 
to one another, that all the benefits of classification could be secured 
in them. Primary, Intermediate, Grammar, and a High School 
constituted the series. 

So soon as the arrangement was completed, and the committee and 
people looked about for the man fitted to fill the highest post, — to cap 
the climax of their new system, — the eyes of all turned, with one ac- 
cord, to Cyrus Peirce, as the only one to be found, on whom they 
could rely to make sure the success of their great experiment. With- 
out much hesitation, though at a considerable sacrifice, Mr. Peirce 
relinquished his private school, which was much more lucrative and 
less laborious, and became, in 183*7, the Principal of the Nantucket 
High School. It was to be made what it ought to be, — the first 
best of the series, and a model of .its kind. In no respect was it a 
failure. It was indeed an eminent success. From his high position, 
he shed down his influence upon all the schools on the island. He 
infused into most of the teachers much of his own spirit. And the 
common schools of Nantucket have, ever since, been distinguished 
among the best in our country. 

A few passages from a very valuable address, delivered by him, 
December 15th, 183*7, will show what was Mr. Peirce's ideal of educa- 
tion; and what pains he thought should be taken, and what expendi- 
tures incurred, by parents and by the State, to secure this greatest 
blessing to all the children of men : 

Education is the dovelopiiieiit of all man's powers — physical, intellectual, and 
moral. It is the drawing out of them all in their just hai'mony and proportion. 
It recjards the material frame, by which the mind manifests its operations. It is 
the formati<m of character, the discipliiie of the intellect, and the building up of 
moral principle, and moral power. Its aim should be to enable man to know, to 
do, to enjoy and to be, all tliat his Creator intended he should know and do, enjoy 
and be. The more nearly it approaches this point, the more nearly it will fulfill 
its appropri.ate office ; and, when it shall have reached this goal, man will stand 
forth again, as at first, the image of his Maker. * * * If such is the object, 
and such the power of education, it should be regarded as the proper business, — 
the greatest end of life, — rather than as a means to something higher and better. 
It should fill a large place in the eye of the patriot, the code of the legislator, and 
the heart of the parent, from neither of whom has it yet received one half of its 
due consideration. * * * With all parents there rests an incalculable re- 
sponsibility in this respect. It is time they knew, and felt it too, that they are, 
without their own choice, their children's educators ; their own house is a school 
room. * * * Provision for public instruction — the instruction of all the 
children in the community — is the unquestionable interest and duty of every wise 
government ; for the primary object of all wise governments should be to increase 
the happiness of the people. And the highest quality of human happiness is that 
derived from exalting the intellect and purifying the lieart ; to the end that men 
may aim at objects worthy of their ambition, and their social intercourse be regu- 
lated with all the satisfaction of mutual love, honor and trust. * * * The 
moral powers of man are his glory. They ally him to natures angelic. How, 
then, can that education be regarded as 'complete, which passes over the moral 
sentiments ? These, like the physical and intellectual faculties, can be perfected 
and made to answer their full purpose, only by training and exercise. What an 



16 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

anomaly is that scliool in which moral cultivation finds no place ! We have de- 
fended schools, on the ground of public and private utility — as the palladium of 
social virtue and civil liberty. Now the prosperity of a community is far more 
dependent on sound moral sentiment, than on a high state of intellectual refine- 
ment. Nothing is more true than that men may be great and learned, without 
being good and useful. Men of high intellectual endowments, but destitute of 
moral principle, are far from being the best materials to compose society. We 
want great men, we want learned men, but much more do we want good men. 
On these must the community rely to carry forward the great work of human im- 
provement. * * * How often has individual genius, that seemed angel-like 
in the loftiness of its aspirations, bowed before mean temptations, which timely 
discipline would have enabled it to withstand ! Our own nation, though young, 
has more than once been seen to tremble on the verge of ruin ; but, it is worthy 
of remark, that such a crisis in no instance has been the result of ignorance, but 
of the destitution of moral principle. If our union and liberties are ever ship- 
wrecked, this is the rock on which they will split. We shall always have enough 
great men ; the only danger is, that there will not be enough good men, — men of 
disciplined passions, nice moral discrimination and active benevolence. * » * 
A cultivated intellect, cast upon society, uncontrolled and unsanctified by moral sen- 
timents, is but the scattering of arrows, fire-brands and death. Thert'foi'e the i>A\\- 
cat'ion of the moral sentiments shvuld be a |)rimary object with all, who have 
any thing to do with instruction. If children are taught buto«c thing, whether at 
home or at school, let it be — iheir duty. Let it be love of truth, sobriety, tem- 
perance, order, justice, and Innnanity. If you make them any thing, make them 
good. * * * It is a fact, which does not speak to our praise, that almost every 
class-book adopted into our schools is prepared to teach how to read, or get, or 
calculate; to teach mere sciences, as though these were the great objects of life. 
Let something more be put into the hands of cliildren, to teach them how to 
feel, to act, to live. * * * Health stands among the first of blessings. 
Children vi'ould do well to learn something of the structure, laws and economy of 
.their own material frame; what food, habits, attitudes, exercises and modes of 
living, are consistent with, opposed to, or promotive of health. What an incalcu- 
lable benefit might thus be rendered to children, by making them early the intelli- 
gent guardians of a trust, to them of inestimable value ! Would it not be doing 
them quite as great a service to demonstrate the natural consei|uenees of inaction, 
over-action, tight lacing, exposure, excess, or licentiousness, — to teach them what 
are healthy attitudes and healthy diets, — how they may avoid a lu^adache, a fever, 
or a consumption, as to teach them the solution of a difhcult problem in algebra, 
or keep them eternally easting per centage ? As connected with the subject of 
health, as well as for the reason of affording to children the means of suitable 
amusement and exercise, every school should be furnished with some simple ap- 
pai'atus for gymnastic purposes. Such provision might indeed be made auxiliary 
to good manners and morals, as well as to sound health. * * * Why should 
not the rising generation be regarded as a public ti'ust, and their education be sus- 
tained at the public charge ? Nothing exerts so great an infiuence (m the charac- 
ter of the present and the coming age ; nothing on public and private virtue and 
happiness ; nothing on the prosperity and perpetuity of our institutions. Noth- 
ing can better subserve the interests of liberty and the equalization of rights ; 
nothing will better enable the poor and the middling interest to make an effectual 
stand against the encroachments of power, of wealth and of title ; or the fi'iends 
of order and law to frustrate the designs of the intriguing demagogue, or restrain 
the outbreakings of popular phrenzy, than sound education. Here, here, fellow- 
citizens, is the palladium of your liberties, — of all that is valuable in the social 
fabric. It is not only connected therewith, but constitutes its very life. Why 
then should not the public assume the education of the child ? * * * Then 
every class of citizens, and every individual, would feel a direct and immediate in- 
terest and concern in the public schools ; and these would rise to an elevation of 
character, which has yet hardly been reached by our best private establishments. 
Our children would be educated together, without distinction of rank ; and this, 
if it has no other recommendation, would certainly better comport with our repub- 
lican habits and institutions. * * * If tlie children of the affluent go to one 
school, and the children of mechaifies and the poor to another, will not the ten- 
dency be to keep up a distinction of ranks in society? * * * Xo have good 



CYRUS PEIRCE. Jf 

schools, we must have good teachers, — teachers of the right temper and disposi- 
tion, and of the proper scholastic attainments. * * * Where shall we get 
them ? How and where shall they be qualified ? * * * Would it be any 
thing more than a consistent carrying out and completion of the school system 
already begun, — yea, would it exceed the limits of a judicious economy, to appro- 
priate funds for establishing seminaries, in which teachers, themselves, may be 
taught how to teach. * * * This, it seems to us, more than any thing, our 
schools need ; and this the community should demand. 

Quickened by the spirit and guided by the principles of this ex- 
cellent address, the people of" Nantucket were led to make many 
improvements in their system of free schools. They enlarged the 
number of them, and graduated them in relation to each other, from 
the Primary to the High School ; introduced improved desks and 
seats, effective ventilators, better text-books, and took greater pains 
to secure the services of well-qualified teachers. The private schools 
were, to a considerable extent, relinquished; and the children of all 
classes came together, as they were able, to enjoy alike the common 
bounty, — of all classes except that which had always been subjected to 
the greatest disadvantages, and therefore needed assistance and encour- 
agement the most. The colored inhabitants of the town were not allowed 
to send their children into the public Grammar Schools ; but a pro- 
vision was made to educate them by themselves. Against this decision, 
Mr. Peirce remonstrated and contended, with his wonted earnestness 
and determination. But the " prejudice against color" was too 
mighty for his appeals to prevail. He left his protest against this wrong. 
It will be preserved ; and, in some future day, it will be read with 
greater admiration than it would awaken now. 

The address, from which we have just made liberal extracts, could 
not escape the vigilant notice of those wise and earnest philanthro- 
pists, who, at that time, were most intent upon the improvement of 
our system of public instruction. In 183Y, the Hon. Horace Mann, 
(whose acceptance of the secretaryship of the then newly-created 
Board of Education in Massachusetts, was an era in the progress of 
Christian civihzation,) visited Nantucket in the course of his thorough 
investigations into the condition of the common schools of the state. 
He found on that island the man who could construct, manage, 
and teach a school, better even than he could tell how it ought to be 
done. Mr. Peirce's school appeared to Mr. Mann an approach to his 
own high ideal of what a seminary for the education of the young 
should be. He clothed his appreciation of its excellencies in a nau- 
tical figure, pertinent to the place and the community in which he 
found it. " That school," said he — we quote from the memory of 
another — " that school is as much superior to schools in general as a 
strongly-built, well-equipped, ably-managed steamboat, propelled by 
a powerful engine, within itself competent to ' keep its head,' let the 



J 8 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

winds blow and the waves roll as they may, is superior to a shij), that 
must shift its sails to suit every breeze, and furl them when it storms, 
and that is withal unseaworthy, leaking at many a seam, poorly 
manned, and commanded by a captain who does not understand 
na\'igation," 

Mr. Peirce kept the Nantucket High School nearly two years. It 
comprised between fifty and sixty pupils of both sexes, and of the 
usual variety of ages and characters. He succeeded, however, in es- 
tablishing and preserving uncommonly good order ; in securing 
remarkable regularity and punctuality in the attendance of his pupils ; 
and induced them to be diligent and faithful in their studies, and to 
make improvement in all respects greater than ever before. And yet 
he struck not one blow, nor inflicted any other corporal punishment. 

The friends of the new system were more than satisfied. The 
opposers were silenced. It was made apparent to all, that public 
schools of every grade, having boys and girls together, if well classed, 
as they may be where there is a proper series, furnished with suitable 
rooms, text-books and apparatus, and committed to the management 
of competent teachers, may be conducted with exemplary order, and 
be led to make greater progress than common, in all the learning 
taught in our schools, without any inflictions of bodily suffering, or 
the stimulus of any other emulation than that which will be natur- 
ally awakened, wherever numbers are brought together to pursue the 
same high object. Excellence, in whatever they undertook to learn 
or to do, excellence was always kept before Mr. Peirce's pupils, as 
the mark to which they should aspire, — excellence, rather than to ex- 
cel a competitor. Thoroughness, exactness, fidelity in all things, 
intelligence in every exercise, and an exalted tone of moral sentiments, 
were the admirable characteristics acknowledged to be conspicuous in 
Mr. Peirce's school. 

These were precisely the excellencies which ought to be conspicuous 
in every school ; but they must be extant in the teacher, or they can 
not be infused into pupils. Therefore, to unfold these excellencies, if 
possible, in all who would be teachers of the young, had come to be 
regarded by the enlightened friends of education as the greatest 
desideratum ; and, to keep the schools out of the hands of those who 
were devoid of these excellencies was felt to be a necessary precaution. 
Mr. Mann and his co-laborers had been brought to the conclusion, that 
seminaries, especially for the training of teachers, must be established. 
And they were confident that Mr. Peirce was the man who could 
show what a normal school should be. 

When, therefore, the munificence of the late Hon. Edmund Dwight 



CYRUS PEIRCE. jg 

induced the legislature of Massachusetts to make the needful appro- 
priation, and so soon as a local habitation had been provided, the 
Board of Education unanimously elected Mr. Peirce to commence the 
enterprise. 

It was with no little difficulty that the people of Nantucket could 
be persuaded to relinquish him ; nor was it easy for him to persuade 
himself to leave his happy home in their midst, where he was so 
much respected and loved ; and where he was so well established at 
the head of a system of schools, which he had mainly devised, and 
which was working so satisfactorily under him. But no one was more 
fully aware of the defects of common schools than he. No one ap- 
preciated more profoundly the necessity of the especial preparation 
of teachers for their work. lie was not the man who would refuse, 
from any personal considerations, what it was made to appear his 
duty to undertake for the benefit of the rising generations. He had 
admired, from the beginning, Horace Mann's generous consecration 
of himself to the improvement of the common schools. He discerned 
the wisdom of his plans, and the unsparing pains he took to carry 
them into operation. And, when that enlightened, devoted friend of 
humanity besought his help, with the earnest assurance that he knew 
no other man to whom he could so confidently intrust the com- 
mencement of that part of his improved system of schools, on which 
the success of the whole depended, Mr. Peirce could not withhold 
himself. He accepted the appointment, saying, " I had rather die 
than fail in the undertaking." 

On the 3d of July, 1839, he entered upon his labors at Lexington, 
as principal of the first Normal School on this continent. 

What a Normal School was to be, most persons could not divine. 
Conjectures were various ; some of them ludicrous. Then, a few 
teachers seemed to feel that the rearing of such an institution was a 
derogatory imputation upon their whole fraternity. Some academies 
looked with an evil eye upon a seminary, founded in part by the 
Commonwealth, to do what they had hitherto assumed to be their 
especial work. Moreover, the admirable qualifications of Mr. Peirce 
to be a teacher of teachers were not much known off the Island of 
Nantucket, excepting to the Board of Education, (itself a novelty,) 
and a few zealots in the cause of reform. Not a note of congratula- 
tion welcomed him to his post. The aspect all around was cold and 
forbidding, except the countenance of Mr. Mann, and the few euhght- 
ened friends of education who regarded his coming as the dawning 
of a new day. 

At the opening of the school, only three offered themselves to 

No. 11. [Vol. IT., No. 2.]— 19. 



20 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

become his pupils. The contrast between the full, flourishing establish- 
ment he had just left at Nantucket, and the " beggarly account of 
empty boxes," which were daily before him for the first three months, 
was very disheartening. He could not repress the apprehension tliat 
the Board of Education had made a fatal mistake, in intrusting the 
commencement of the enterprise to one so little known as himself 
throughout the Commonwealth ; and he feared that Normal Schools 
would die at their birth, for want of something to live on. However, 
he had put his hand to the plough, and of course the furrow must be 
driven through, aye, and the whole field turned over, before he would 
relinquish his effort. He set about his work, as one determined to " do 
with his might what his hand found to do." He soon made his three 
pupils conscious that there was more to be known about even the 
primary branches of education than they had dreampt of; and better 
methods of teaching reading, spelling, grammar, arithmetic and 
geography, than were practised in the schools. Their reports of the 
searching thoroughness and other excellent peculiarities of the Normal 
Teacher attracted others to him. The number of his pupils steadily 
increased from term to term, until, at the expiration of his first three 
years of service, there were forty-two. In the course of those years, 
more than fifty went out from under his training, to teach, with certifi- 
cates of his approbation; and the obvious improvement in their 
methods of governing children, and giving them instruction, demon- 
strated the utility of Normal Schools. His immediate successor, in 
1842, in order to satisfy himself and the public on this point, sent a 
circular letter to every district in the Commonwealth, Avhere a pupil 
of Mr. Peirce's was known to have been employed as an instructor, 
making the inquiries adapted to elicit the desired information. In 
every case, but one or two, testimonials were returned, setting forth the 
marked superiority of teachers from the Normal School. It became 
then a fixed fact, that such a seminary was needful, — that it would 
efi"ect the improvement in common schools, which was of first im- 
portance — namely, the better qualification of teachers. Normal 
Schools have been multiplied ; their usefulness is no longer questioned ; 
ample provisions are made for their support; they have come to be 
regarded as an essential part of the improved system of public 
instruction in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and several other 
states, besides Massachusetts. Is it, then, small praise, to have it said 
of any one, that we are indebted for the establishment of Normal 
Schools to him, more than to any other individual ? If to Horace 
Mann belongs the honor of having made the need of such institutions 
so apparent, that private and public bounty was directed toward them. 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 21 

it is due to Mr. Peirce to record that it was liis inflexible perseverance, 
which overcame the obstacles that well-nigh precluded their com- 
mencement, and his admirable fidelity and skill which settled the 
question of their usefulness. One of the earliest and most devoted 
promoters of the educational improvements which have been intro- 
duced within the last twenty years, the gentleman who framed and 
set in operation the excellent school system of Rhode Island, and 
has done more than any body else to regenerate the school system 
of Connecticut, (the editor of this Journal is the only person who 
would be displeased should we name him,) the gentleman whose 
knowledge of the history of this revival of education is more exten- 
sive and thorough, and whose judgment of its causes and effects is 
more to be relied on, than that of any other man, — hardly excepting 
even Horace Mann, — that gentleman has more than once been heard 
to say, — " Had it not been for Mr. Cyrus Peirce, I consider that the 
cause of Normal Schools would have failed, or have been postponed 
for an indefinite period." 

Let it, then, be added here, the selection of Mr. Peirce to commence 
this signal improvement, was not a matter of mere accident, or good 
fortune. It was the result of Mr, Mann's thorough appreciation of 
the nature of the undertaking, and profound insight into the qualifica- 
tions of the one who should be trusted to commence it. He might 
have selected one of many gifted teachers, more widely known, and 
of more popular, attractive mien, — one who would, at the outset, have 
gathered about him a host of pupils. He might have found a few 
who could have taught some things, perhaps, better than Mr. Peirce. 
But there was no other man, within the sphere of his careful search, 
who combined so many of the qualities demanded, so many of the 
elements of certain success. If we should name another as compara- 
ble to him, it would be the late lamented David P. Page, the first 
principal of the New York Normal School, who excelled Mr. Peirce 
in popular gifts, and almost equaled him in all the fundamental 
requisites. Still, the preference was wisely given. 

Mr. Peirce's profound reverence for truth is the basis of his charac- 
ter as a man and a teacher, — truth in every thing, — the whole truth, 
the exact truth. Never have we known another so scrupulous. His 
reverence for truth was ever active, ever working in him, and renewing 
itself, day by day, in some higher manifestation, or some deeper ex- 
pression. Although he frequently, if not every day, closed his school 
with the admonition, — "my pupils, live to the truth," — yet it never 
seemed like a vain repetition ; it always appeared to come fresh from 
his heart, as if it were a new inspiration of his longing for them to 
become all that God had made them capable of being. 



22 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

To pupils of a facile, temporizing, slipshod disposition, Mr. Peirce 
was tedious, because of his particularity. Not partly, almost, very 
nearly right, would ever satisfy him. Each answer that was given 
him to every question that he put, must be wholly, exactly correct ; 
so correct as to make it self-evident that the one who gave it fully 
appreciated the truth expressed by the words he used ; and used such 
words as made the truth luminous to others, who were capable of re- 
ceiving it. This intellectual and moral conscientiousness soon capti- 
vated those of a kindred spirit, and, in due time, impressed the most 
heedless as an admirable, a divine characteristic. Surely it is so. It 
can not be too conspicuous in those, to whom may be intrusted the 
forming of the mental and moral habits of the young. For the 
divergence of " almost right," from " exactly right," may, in the course 
of time, be greater than any, except the Infinite mind, can estimate. 

Attention to one thing at a time, and the thorough, complete 
understanding of every thing antecedent and preliminary, before at- 
tempting to advance in any branch of science, were principles on 
which Mr. Peirce insisted, until it was found to be futile to attempt 
to get forward under his tuition, if they were slighted. All shamming 
was detected by him ; and skimming the surface of any subject made 
to appear silly. It was settled that nothing could be well taught to 
another, unless the teacher thorougly comprehended what he set 
about to communicate. Therefore, much of the time of his pupils in 
the Normal School was devoted to the careful study of each branch 
of learning expected to be taught in the primary and grammar 
schools, — the primary being always accounted by him prior in im- 
portance, as well as in time. On nothing, except only moral culture, 
did Mr. Peirce dwell with more particularity, than on the first elements 
of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. He insisted that whenever a 
child has been put in full possession of these, he will be able to attain 
any degree of proficiency in each of the branches, and their depend- 
dents, that he may take pains to seek. But, if these elementary 
parts have not been thoroughly learnt by any one, imperfection will, 
at some time, somewhere, show itself, and embarrass subsequent 
attempts at learning, with or without an instructor. 

Next to thinking and expressing one's own thoughts, the most 
wonderful power given to man is that by which we may receive from 
the written or the printed page, and communicate audibly, the 
thoughts of another. Yet this power is in most cases very imperfect- 
ly unfolded, and very shabbily exercised. The number of good 
readers, within any one's acquaintance, may always be counted in a 
trice. 



*-. 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 23 

" To hear some parsons, how they preach, 
How they run o'er all parts of speech, 
And neither rise a note, nor sink ; 
Our learned Bishops, one would think, 
Had taken school-boys from the rod 
To make embassadors to God." 

Upon nothing, excepting moral character, did Mr. Peirce bestow so 
much pains as upon the Art of Reading. And he was singularly suc- 
cessful in teaching it — especially the reading of our Sacred Scriptures. 
Yet was he lacking in what would seem to be the siiie qua non of a 
fine reader, namely, a clear, sonorous voice. His deficiency in this 
respect, however, was triumphed over by the force of his intellect, 
and the depth of his emotional nature. It was forgotten, as one 
listened to his luminous, forcible reading of choice passages from the 
Bible, or other favorite books. His hearers caught the inspiration of 
his soul ; so that, never has reading seemed to us so high an intel- 
lectual effort and treat, as when we have been listening to some of 
his pupils. 

His method of teaching reading, from the beginning, is set forth in 
his lecture before the American Institute of Instruction, in 1844, 
which may be found in the volume published by the Institute that 
year. In order to save children from acquiring a monotonous, or 
drawling, or nasal tone, which it is so difficult afterward to correct, as 
well as to make reading, fi-om the first, a more intelligible, intelligent, 
and agreeable exercise, Mr. Peirce, in that lecture, recommends, what 
he had tried with excellent success in his Model School, beginning 
with words rather than letters. We fear this method lias not been 
faithfully tried in our schools generally ; and we would take this occa- 
sion to commend it again to all who are about to commence teaching 
any children to read, at home, or in the primary schools. Try this 
method, as it is explained in the lecture just referred to. We com- 
mend it, not only on the high authority of Mr. Peirce, but on our 
own observation of its much better results. 

In Arithmetic, Mr, Peirce was among the first to welcome and 
apply Mr. W. Colburn's method of teaching the relations and powers 
of numbers, — a method which can never be superseded, and the 
application of which has never been surpassed, if equaled, by any sub- 
sequent authors, excepting those who have built on his foundation. 
Mr. Colburn's method, however, may be abused, as it has been, by 
teachers who have not thoroughly understood it, or have been care- 
less in applying it. Mr. Peirce taught his pupils in the Normal 
School how to teach Arithmetic exactly in the manner indicated by 



24 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

Mr. Colburu. In this he preceded, thougli he never surpassed Mr. 
TiUinghast ; and we take this occasion to add, neither of them quite 
equaled Miss Caroline Tilden, the favorite pupil of the one, and one 
of the favorite assistants of the other. 

But we have not here room to specify any further. In every de- 
partment of teaching, Mr. Peirce was, and taught his pupils to be, 
thorough, intelligent, and intelligible. He impressed it, in the first 
place, upon all whom he was preparing for the work, that, whatsoever 
they would communicate to others, they must first themselves thor- 
oughly understand. The text-book, however excellent, may be of 
little avail to his class, unless the teacher knows more than the mere 
Ivords of that book. And, secondly, the teacher can not help his 
pupils to acquire any part of an}^ science, excepting so far as he may 
lead them clearly to comprehend it. Mr. Peirce continually detected 
and repudiated the substitution of memory for understanding ; and 
earnestly enjoined it upon his pupils to do likewise, when they should 
become teachers. 

As soon as practicable, after opening the Normal School at Lexing- 
ton, Mr. Peirce instituted the Model Department, — a school composed 
of the children of the neighborhood, just such as would be found in 
most of our country district schools. In that he led his normal 
pupils, seriatim, by turns, to apply and test for themselves, the 
correctness, the excellence of the pi'inciplcs of teaching, Avhicli he 
was laboi'ing to instil into them. This was the most peculiar part of 
the institution. In the management of it, he evinced great adroitness 
as well as indomitable perseverance, and untiring patience. In that 
Model Department, the future teachers, under his supervision, practised 
the best methods of governing and instructing children, so that each 
one, when she left the Normal School, carried with her some exjyerience 
in the conduct of a common school. 

Thus Mr. Peirce wrought three years at Lexington, performing an 
amount of labor, which, should we give it in detail, it might lessen, in 
the estimation of our readers, our credibility as a biographer. He 
fully justified the confidence which Mr. Mann and the Board of Educa- 
tion had reposed in him. And he gained continually the reverence and 
the love of his successive pupils. Strict as he was, uncompromising, 
exacting as he was, he was yet so just, so true, so faithful in his atten- 
tions to each individual, — so kind and sympathizing to all, even the 
least successful and most unlovely, — that he conciliated the hearts of 
all, not wholly excepting even the very few who were untractable in 
his hands. It was so obvious that he desired their highest good, so 
obvious that he was truly paternal in his regard for their personal 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 25 

welfare and future usefulness, that '■'■ Father Peirce'''' soon came to be 
the title given him with one accord. 

His labors and cares were too much even for his jiowers of attention 
and endurance. They were such, that he seldom allowed himself 
more than foicr hours for sleep, out of each twenty-four. He slig'hted 
nothing. Not the least thing was out of order, that he was respon- 
sible for. He gave personal attention to every exercise of each one 
of his pupils — especial consideration to the case of every one who 
needed. He kept a watchful eye upon the deportment of all, out of 
school as well as in, and had a care for the comfort and especially for 
the health of all. It was more than he could longer endure. 

In 1842, therefore, at the end of three years, he was obliged to re- 
sign his charge. "It was," we quote from the Sixth Annual Report 
of the Board of Education, " the ardent desire of the Board to 
secure the further services of that gentleman in a place, which he 
has filled with such honor to himself and such usefulness to the com- 
munity ; but, owing to the state of his health and to other circum- 
stances, he felt obliged to tender his resignation, which the Board most 
reluctantly accepted. Never, perhaps, have greater assiduity and 
fidelity distinguished and rewarded, the labors of any instructor. Mr. 
Peirce has retired from the employment of teaching ; but the models 
of instruction which he has left, and his power of exciting an enthu- 
siasm in the noble cause of education, will long remain as a blessing 
to the young." 

He left Lexington, regretted by all, and returned once more to his 
loved home on the Island of Nantucket, under the painful apprehen- 
sion that his labors as a teacher were ended, and that the rest of his 
life must be spent as an invalid. But the entire repose of body and 
mind which he was there permitted to enjoy, recruited him more and 
much sooner than was expected; and, at the end of two years, he 
was ready to engage again in the work of teaching. 

His successor, at Lexington, gladly resigned the place in his favor. 
He was at once reelected by a unanimous vote of the Board of Educa- 
tion, and resumed the charge of the Normal School in August, 1844; — 
not, however, in Lexington. The number of pupils had so greatly 
increased that much larger accommodations Avere needed than could be 
furnished in Lexington. A building of suitable dimensions, but erected 
for another purpose, had just then been purchased in West Newton. 
All arrangements necessary for the school were to be made in it. 
The devising and superintending of these devolved upon Mr. Peirce ; 
and he soon showed, so far as the limits within which he was required 
to work would permit, that he knew how a school -room ought to be 



26 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

constructed, arranged, furnislied, warmed and ventilated, as well as 
how those who should be gathered into it, ought to be instructed. 
Every one who came to view the work, when completed, acknowledged 
that he had made the best possible use of the premises and the funds, 
that had been put at his disposal. 

In that somewhat new and much enlarged sphere, he labored yet 
five years more, with his wonted fidelity, skill and success. He had 
now very able assistants, those on whose faithfulness as well as ability, 
he could implicitly rely. Yet was his attention unremitted. He was 
mindful of every thing. His pupils were not regarded merely as 
component parts of their several classes. Each of them was an indi- 
vidual. Each might have peculiar diflSculties to contend with, peculiar 
obstacles to success. He, therefore, sought to know each one person- 
ally, that he might render the aid, and suggest the discipline applica- 
ble to each. True, as he never spared himself, so ho rigidly exacted of 
his pupils all that he knew them to be able to perform. Yet, he 
sympathized with every one of them. He was as a father to them 
all. The discovery of any serious faults in any of them only made 
him more solicitous for their improvement, more tender in his manner ; 
although never indulgent, never remitting what it was right to require. 

It was during this second connexion with the Normal School that 
Mr. Pierce laid the foundation of a disease that will probably cause 
him much discomfort, it may be severe suffering, so long as he abides 
in the body. 

It was his unvarying determination to have every thing pertaining 
to the school-house so carefully arranged, and in such perfect order 
betimes, that not one minute of the hours appropriated to school 
exercises should be lost. All his pupils wca-e females. He, therefore, 
could not call upon them for assistance in some of the "chores" that 
needed to be done every day and night, especially in the winter season. 
Neither could he hire the service of any man, who would never fail 
to do every thing that needed to be done, at the right time, and 
in the best manner. Furthermore, he was unwilling to increase the 
expenses of his pupils, many of whom Avere poor, by swelling the 
amount of incidental charges, which devolved upon them. During 
each of the winters at West Newton, as he used to do while at Lex- 
ington, when the night was very cold, threatening an unusually severe 
morning, he would go, at eleven or twelve o'clock, and replenish the 
furnace, to insure a comfortable room at the opening of the school. 
He would always go, at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, attend to the 
fires, sweep off" the snow from the steps, shovel paths around the house, 
bring water enough from a neighboring well to supply the demands 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 2Y 

of the day, and then, returning home, would devote himself to study 
until school time, carefully preparing himself upon every lesson which 
he was about to teach. It may seem to some of our readers that we 
are condescending too much in making mention of such matters ; but, 
it is in faithful attention to small matters that the depth and strength 
of a man's principles are evinced.* And the fact that it was these 
things which brought upon him a malady that will be life-long, gives 
them no little importance in the memoir of this excellent man. 

In the summer of 1849, he was compelled again to resign the 
charge of the Normal School, which might almost be called a thing 
of his own creation ; to the welftire of which every power of his soul 
and of his body had been consecrated for eight years. And now he 
must leave it, with the sad consciousness that health and strength 
were so seriously impaired that he was no longer able, and never 
again would be able, to discharge, as he had been wont to do, the 
duties of the place he had filled so long. Yes, literally filled. No 
one but himself could recount any of Father Peirce's shortcomings. 
His measure of performance had run over rather than come short. That 
was a day of sore trial to his feelings, and the feehngs of the many 
who revered and loved him. Yet was it an occasion of joy, of gener- 
ous exultation. He was to receive an honorable discharge from an 
arduous post, the duties of which had been excellently well fulfilled. 

The highest commendations of his fidelity and success were be- 
stowed by the Board of Education and others, who had been most 
cognizant of his labors. His pupils, in great numbers, gathered about 
him, to testify their respect and aftection. The Normal School-rooms, 
which he had constructed, and had permeated with his earnest, devoted 
spirit, every day of every term for five years, were tastefully and perti- 
nently decorated ; and there, in the presence of as many of his normal 
children, and tried friends, and generous patrons of the institution, as 
the rooms would admit, he was addressed by the Hon. Horace Mann, 
who had selected him for that high place, had persuaded him to ac- 
cept it, and who could, more justly than any body else, appreciate' the 
exceeding value of his services. It was a valedictory honorable alike 
to him who gave and him who received it. 

A purse, containing about five hundred dollars, contributed by his 
pupils and other friends, was then presented, to induce and enable 
him to accept the appointment, tendered to him by the American 
Peace Society, to go as one of their representatives to the World's 
Peace Congress, to be held shortly in the city of Paris. 

* Mr. Peii-ce required nothing of Ills pupils, lliat lie did not himself practise. During the 
fifty years of his school-keeping, he never absented himself in a single instance for the sake 
of any recreation. And he was tardy only twice. ' 



28 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 



This was almost tlie only recreation he had allowed himself to think 
of taking since he left college, in 1810. 

He went to Europe in company with a long-tried friend, — one of the 
same ripe age with himself, of similar tastes and character, — the Rev. Dr. 
Joseph Allen, of Northborough, who, like himself, had well-earned a 
respite from care and toil. Both of them were disciples of the vener- 
able Worcester, the Apostle of Peace, and had, for many years, incul- 
cated and practised the principles of the Gospel, which that holy man 
labored to redeem from neglect. It was, therefore, with no common 
interest that they went to a convention of persons, called from all 
parts of the world, to meet in the metropolis of the most belligerent 
nation of modern Europe. The meeting convened on the 22 d day of 
August, 1849. There they saw, heard and communed with many of 
the pure, Christian men of Christendom, who, in the midst of the clash 
of armies, the shouts of victory, the lamentations of defeat, had long 
seen and deplored the folly as well as the wickedness of war, and had 
been earnestly inquiring for some other modes of adjusting the differ- 
ences which must needs arise between nations, similar to those that 
are relied upon in cases that arise between individuals. 

They afterward spent some months, traveling in England and on 
the Continent, enjoying all the gratification that the time and their 
opportunities allowed them, and their abundant stores of historical and 
classical knowledge qualified them to partake of. 

In a letter lately received from Dr. Allen, he says of Mr. Peirco : 

I never fully appreciated his merits, until he became connected with the Nor- 
mal School. There, as all know, he was not only principal but princeps. There 
he exhibited the abundant fruits of his patient, faithful laboi's, continued, without 
intermission, through the years of his youth and manhood ; and there ho gained a 
name that will live and be honored by future generations. * * * Jt ^^g my 
good fortune to be his fellow-traveler in a tour thi'ough some parts of England and 
the Continent, in the summer of 1849. We went in the same packet, rode in the 
same cars or carriages, lodged at the same inns. This close and long-continued 
intercourse served to cement our friendship, and greatly to increase my high 
respect for him as a scholar, and a man of integrity, honor and purity, — an 
Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no guile. 

Soon after his return from Europe, in 1850, partly because of his 
pecuniary need, but mainly because of his love of teaching, he became 
an assistant in the excellent school opened by Mr. Nathaniel P. Allen, 
in the premises lately of the Normal School, which was removed to 
Framingham ; and there, like the Hon. John Q. Adams in Congress, 
he has for several years been discharging, with exemplary fidelity, the 
duties of a subordinate, in the very place where he had so long presided. 

If there be one excellence Avhich, more than another, has character- 
ized the schools kept by Mr. Peirce, from the beginning of his long 
career, it is the especial attention he has paid to the moral culture of 



CYRDS PEIRCE. 29 

his pupils. He early perceived that the development of the intel- 
lectual forces of the children of men, and the bestowment upon them 
of large stores of literary and scientific knowledge, without a corres- 
ponding unfolding of their moral natures, fitted and often would rather 
dispose them to vice more than to virtue. It has long been obvious 
that " knowledge is power " for evil as well as for good. Mr. Peirce 
was fully persuaded that those instructors were conferring a question- 
able benefit upon society, if nothing worse, who were sending out 
children, enabled to run well on any of the various courses which 
might be thrown open to their political ambition, their love of money, 
or desire for social distinction, unless they have taken all necessary 
pains to fortify thera against temptation, by awakening in their hearts a 
profound reverence for all the laws of God, and an unfeigned, impartial 
respect for the rights and feelings of their fellow-men. 

His views on this fundamentally important matter were fully exhib- 
ited in a carefully prepared Essay on " Crime, its cause and cure," 
which he presented incognito to the committee of the American 
Institute of Instruction on Prize Essays, in 1853. Each member of 
that committee by himself examined it, and formed his decision with- 
out conference with the other members. They all concurred in 
awarding to his essay the premium offered. And yet, when the essay 
came to be read before the Institute at New Haven, it was misunder- 
stood, misrepresented, vehemently opposed, and finally forbidden a 
place among the publications of the Institute. Seldom has there 
been such an instance of hot haste in a deliberative assembly of wise 
and good men. The essay was soon after published, just as it had 
been read to the Institute. It vindicates itself against the decision 
of that body. And it has also the endorsement of such men as George 
B. Emerson and Solomon Adams. The essay does not, as was 
alledged, charge upon the schools of New England that they teach im- 
morality, or that they are the 2^'>'oductive cause of the increase of crime 
among us. It only asserts and maintains what was seen to be true by 
the most careful observers, and has since become more and more 
apparent to all who take any notice, — 1st, that merely intellectual 
education is no security against immorality or crime ; 2d, that facts 
show that crime may increase at the same time with increased atten- 
tion to education, — the common education of the school ; — that this is 
the case, to some extent, in our own New England ; and for the 
reason, in part, that the common education of our schools has in it 
too little of the moral element. We cultivate the head more than 
the heart. And 3d, that there is, hence, a call upon teachers, commit- 
tees, parents, and all friends of true education, to make a larger outlay 



30 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

for moral instruction, assigning to it in our schools tlie high place its 
importance demands. No propositions respecting our schools could 
have been announced, that were then, and are now, more easily proved 
than these. Could Mr. Peirce's essay be read again to the Institute, at 
this day, it would meet with a very different reception. The eyes of 
many more men, here and in Europe, have opened since 1853, to dis- 
cern what he then saw. While we are writing these pages, a grave 
amount of testimony, exactly to the point in question, is brought to 
us in a contemporary journal. The Religious Magazine^ as follows : 

Education in New England has not been receding these dozen years. Schools 
have been multiplied ; universities have been enlarged ; the standard of scholar- 
ship has been raised. Yet the grosser kinds of iniquity have been spreading too. 
A careful examination of the records of penitentiaries and criminal dockets, has 
shown that this growth of lawlessness is just as great, in proportion, among those 
cliTsses that instruction reaches, as with the abject and illiterate. Joseph Fletcher, 
one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, in a careful work on the moral statis- 
tics of England and Wales, shows that crime is not according to ignorance. 
Similar returns from France indicate, in fact, that the most highly educated dis- 
tricts are the most criminal districts. A series of able articles in the " Morning 
Chronicle," for 1849 and 1850, go to establish the same strange and almost para- 
doxical conclusion respecting different parts of Great Britain. The testimony 
of many chaplains of prisons is brought to confirm it. The ingenious treatise of 
Herbert Spencer, entitled " Social Statistics," adduces much parallel evidence. 
There may be some element in such data to modify an inference of the full 
breadth of the apparent facts. Yet is it a most impressive result. Ought it not to 
satisfy us that mental cultivation and moral principle are two things, — meant, no 
doubt to be harmonized and to help each other, but easily separated, and even 
made perversely hostile ? 

Horace Mann took the true ground, in his late address at Antioch 
College, in maintaining that colleges ought to be held responsible for 
the moral as well as the intellectual character of its graduates ; and 
that diplomas should either contain, or be accompanied with, a dis- 
criminating certificate of moral character. 

We think the American Institute of Instruction owe it to them- 
selves, and to their committee on prizes, not less than to Mr. Peirce, 
to reconsider their action in 1853 respecting his essay, and to give it 
the honorable place among their publications to which it is entitled. 

In accordance with the conviction declared in that essay, and ani- 
mated by the spirit which breathes through it, Mr. Peirce, from the 
first, has given his chief attention to the moral conduct and principles 
of his pupils. No violation of the truth, in act or word, no obliquity 
of language, or feeling, or motive, would he pass lightly over. Any 
thing of the kind revealed to him that there was unsoundness at the 
very basis of his pupil's character; and he had no heart, until that 
should be remedied, to go on building upon a foundation that he 
knew might at any time give way, and leave the superstructure a 
moral ruin, — all the more unsightly and pitiful if decorated with the 



CYRUS PEIRCE 3 J 

ornaments which learning, genius and taste may have entwined 
around the fallen columns. 

Of course, it was in the preparation and recitation of their lessons, 
for the most part, that he was led to the discovery of his pupil's faults, 
or weaknesses, — was brought into conflict with the evil that was 
in them. He never punished, he never reproved a pupil for failing to 
do what he was unable to do ; but only for negligence, for inattention, 
for not having made the effort he was bound to make. This he 
justly accounted an immorality. It was unfaithfulness to one's self ; 
a fraud upon the teacher ; ingratitude to one's parents ; impiety 
toward God. No one could have been more tender, sympathizing, 
than Mr. Peirce always was, to one in difficulty. He would explain 
what was obscure. He would remove all obstacles out of his way, 
excepting that which the pupil alone could remove, — the obstacle in 
his own will, — his indisposition to make the needful effort. That the 
})upil must make himself. And Mr. Peirce never released him ; 
never qualified a demand that it was reasonable to enforce. 

Any artifices at the time of recitation, any promptings by word 
or sign, any sly lookings to discover what ought to have been learnt 
before, if detected, (as they were very apt to be by his vigilant eye 
or ear,) were sure to bring upon the culprits severe reprimands, it 
may have been some more enduring punishments. He could not 
look upon such as light oftences, — merely roguish tricks, pardonable in 
thoughtless boys. They were frauds — attempts to make things and 
persons appear to be what they were not. And, if boys and girls did 
not appreciate the iniquity of such things, it ought all the more care- 
fully to be exposed to them, and impressed upon them. 

So, too, unnecessary tardiness and absence from school, playing or 
whispering during the hours assigned to study, were denounced and 
treated as grave offences against the little community, (which every 
school is,) no less than against one's self. Each and all of these things 
were reproved and punished, not so much because they were contrary 
to the laws which he had enacted, as because they were wrong in 
themselves, contrary to the eternal laws of right. He was careful to 
make the morality of all his requirements apparent to his j)upi]s. 
His was not an arbitrary government. His laws were not matters of 
his own invention. They were the principles of righteousness applied 
to the conduct of children. 

We have already stated that, at the outset of his career as a teacher, 
Mr. Peirce resorted to the then common expedients for insuring order, 
obedience, and attention to study ; to wit, corporal punishments, 
appeals to emulation, offers of premiums. By these he did, for the 



32 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

most part, obtain good recitations. He kept what was accounted a 
good school. He got to himself a high reputation. He could always 
have as many pupils as he saw fit to receive. For, behind all these 
things, there were accuracy, thoroughness, untiring assiduity, and im- 
partial fidelity. It would seem, too, from the letters we have received, 
that, with the exception of the few very perverse, ill-disposed ones, he 
was generally beloved as well as respected by his pupils. They were 
all satisfied that he desired to promote their highest welfare ; and 
that he was able as well as willing to teach them all they were willing 
or able to learn. Goldsmith's description of a country schoolmaster, 
might be taken as quite a correct likeness of him in that day, and of 
the regard in which he was held by the parents and their children. 

But it was not long before he came to distrust the common 
appliances, and, at last, long ago, utterly to abandon and discounte- 
nance the use of them. He has been so successful in the manage- 
ment of his schools for the last twenty years, without corporal pun- 
ishments, premiums, or artificial emulations, and withal has been 
so prominent an advocate of the new doctrine of school government, 
that it may be instructive, as well as interesting to our readers, to be 
informed of the process of the change, which took place in him, and 
the reasons for that change. 

Our account will be taken mainly from a letter, which he wrote to 

a very particular friend, — wrote without the expectation that any 

part of it would be given to the public. It will speak for itself. It 

will call forth responses from the hearts of many, who have had, or 

may have, much experience in school-keeping. 

The change was grailual, the work of time, and arose from various considera- 
tions. 1st. I could not, at least I did not, always administer corporal punishment, 
without awakening, or yielding to emotions of a doubtful character. I began to 
suspect that the effect upon myself was not good ; and I could see that it often 
shocked, disturbed, but did not exalt the moral sentiment of the school. In a woid, 
to both parties, it seemed to me, to work spiritual death rather than life. 2d. 
Often, after having inflicted it, I was visited with very troublesome doubts ; such 
as, that possibly I had been too severe, even where I had no doubt that the 
offender deserved some chastisement ; sometimes with a query, whether I could 
not have gotten along quite as well without any blows at all. This last query 
was pretty apt to arise the next day, after all the excitement of the occasion had 
subsided. 3d. Then again I was often troubled with the thought, that possibly I had 
not made sufficient allowance for the circumstances, and considerations, which 
pleaded in behalf of the culprit, such as natural temperament, inherited disposi- 
tion, his previous training, surrounding influences, and peculiar temptations. 4th. 
Moreover, when I witnessed the blessed, the heavenly effects of forgiveness, and 
encouragement, I would almost resolve forthwith to put away the ferule and strap, 
and rely on moral suasion alone. 5th. As I lived longer, and observed, and 
experienced more, if I grew no wiser in other respects, I did in the knowledge of 
myself. I saw more of my own imperfections and faults, and self-conviction made 
me more compassionate and forgiving toward others. In fine, I came to the belief, 
that the natural laws and their penalties, to which all men, and the children of 
men, alike, are subject, from the beginning of their existence, were founded in love, 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 33 

as well as wisdom ; yea, that our sufferings, (the consequences of transgression,) 
were, equally with our enjoyments, evidences of the wisdom and benevolence of 
the Heavenly Father. I thought, too, that I could discern a connexion between 
the transgression committed and the penalty endured, — an adaptation of the one 
to the other, in the divine discipline, the like of which I could not see in my own 
artificial inflictions. The punishments I was wont to apply, began to seem to 
me harsh, far-fetched, arbitrary, having no relation to the offences committed. 
And ought we not, said I to myself, in our discipline of children, to strive to imitate, 
as closely as possible, the Divine administration ? On philosophical principles, too, 
it seemed to me, the educator of the young could not be justified, in appealing to 
fear and force. Hope is a higher, nobler principle than fear. Hope, cheers, 
quickens, awakens aspiration, e.xcites to effijrt and sustains it. Fear addresses 
itself to selfishness ; depresses and debases the subject of it. Moreover, it seemed 
to me, as the Creator had adapted the human mind to seek, apprehend and enjoy 
the truth, that, whenever truth was rightly presented, it would be apprehended, 
embraced, enjoyed, as naturally as the stomach receives, and relishes its appro- 
priate food, without the extraneous and ill-adapted stimulus of blows. He, whose 
inspiration gave understanding to man, did not so fashion it as to render blows 
necessary to enable it to receive and appreciate knowledge. I came to see less 
and less clearly the loving kindness, or wisdom of such appliances. 

God, creation, man, human relations, indeed all things began to put on a new 
and more beautiful aspect. Under the rule and quickening influence of love, 
the school-room wore a new and brighter face, — brighter prospectively, when I 
entered it in the morning ; brighter retrospectively, when I left it at night. 

The above, I trust, will serve to hint to you the leading considerations that 
wrought with me a change of views and of practice, in regard to the whole sub- 
ject of school discipline ; in regard to the means and motives to be resorted to, in 
the great work of education. The persons chiefly instrumental in bringing about 
this change in me, quite unconsciously it mjiy have been to themselves, were the 
Rev. Mr. Mottey, late of Lynnfield, Mass. ; the Rev. Dr. Damon, late of West 
Cambridge, and Lucretia Mott. The conversations of each of these excellent per- 
sons, helped to bring me to the result I have attempted to describe. I think it 
was after listening to a conversation from Mrs. Mott, at Nantucket, in 1827, that 
I definitely formed the resolution to attempt thenceforward to keep school without 
the intervention, (for I can not say aid,) oi' blows. 

In the same communication, of which the foregoing is an abstract, 
Mr. Peirce, says : — " The book to which, after the Bible, I owe most, 
is that incomparable work of George Combe, 'Ore the Constitution of 
Man.'' It was to me a most suggestive book ; and I regard it as the 
best treatise on education, and the philosophy of man, which I have 
ever met with." 

Whatever may have been his methods of teaching and governing, 
Mr. Pierce, from the beginning to the end of his career, has made the 
impression upon his pupils, that he was able to give them all the 
instruction they were disposed or able to receive ; and that it was 
his unfeio-ned desire, and constant endeavor, to lead them to become 
truly wise, and truly (/ood. 

The highest tribute that could be paid to his excellence, as a man 
and a teacher, would be a compendium of the very numerous testi- 
monials which lie before us, from his earliest and his latest pupils. 
We have already given several from those of the former class. A few 
from the latter must suffice, and will appropriately close our memoir. 

One, who was a member of his first class at Lexington, in 1839 and 
1840, writes thits : " I soon learnt to respect him, for his untiring 



34 CYRUS PEIRCE. 

watchfulness, his uncompromising integrity, and his unceasing faith- 
fulness — ' instant in season and out of season.' To these I can bear a 
most grateful testimony." 

Another, who was one of his pupils at West Newton, in 1849, says : 
" As an earnest, thorough, and effective teacher, I beheve him to be 
unequaled. Endeavoring, as he mainly did, to rear the education of 
his pupils upon a true, solid basis, he dwelt especially upon the ele- 
ments of every thing to be taught ; aiming constantly to give that 
thorough, mental discipline, which puts the pupil into possession of 
his powers of acquisition and preservation. But Father Peirce's 
crowning excellence, was his moral power. I have never known a 
person who wielded so palpable an influence in this respect. Few 
natures could long withstand it. And I believe the good he has done 
in this, the highest, most essential, but most neglected part of human 
development, will never be duly estimated in time. * * * He 
combines, it seems to me, all the gentleness, tenderness, delicacy of a 
refined woman, with all the munlincss of a true man." 

An excellent young man, who became one of his pupils, soon after 
his return from Europe," has sent us the following testimony. " To 
Mr. Peirce, under God, I owe the knowledge I have acquired, and the 
moral character I have formed. I went to his school with strong pro- 
clivities to dissipation, and an utter distaste for study. With great 
forbearance, and by skilful, as well as kind management, he has en- 
abled me to overcome both. He exerts quietly a very powerful influence 
over those who are intrusted to his discipline. He at once commands 
their respect ; and, in due time, engages their affection." 

But we must close ; — and we close in the words of one, who was 
first a very favorite pupil, and afterward, for years, a most devoted 
and effective assistant, — Mrs. E. N. AValton : 

I do not now recall any striking incidents, that would illustrate Father Peirce's 
character, either as a teacher, or as the pioneer in the great struggle which has 
resulted in the life and acknowledged necessity of Normal Schools. His life was 
uniformly so true, and his labors so unremitted, that, as I look back upon them, I 
discern no points that were strikingly prominent above others. The impression is 
rather that of a beautiful whole. * * * Every life has its lesson for human- 
ity ; and this, it seems to me, is taught by his. The almost omnipotence, within 
man's sphere, of a strong, inflexible will, and of patient, unremitted efforts in 
striving for the truth, and obeying one's convictions of right. His energy, united 
with his conscientiousness, made him what he was, and enabled him to accomplish 
what he did. What he undertook, he would do. Attempting was with him, so 
far as human efforts could make it, a synonym of succeeding. At first, I won- 
dered at the results he accomplished ; but an occurrence, which happened while we 
were at West Newton, showed me so fully his peculiar temperament, that I never 
afterward doubted that he would perform any task he set himself about. What- 
ever he could do, and had shown to be practicable, he insisted should be attempted 
by others. His pupils generally were i-eal workers. They did not dare do 
otherwise than strive, and keep striving to the end. They felt, when they set 
about teaching, that there must be no failure ; the whole normal enterprise rested. 



CYRUS PEIRCE. gg 

for the time being, upon their shoulJers, aud they must bear it, though they were 
crushed beneath it. 

His power of example was immense. Those pupils, upon whom his seal is 
deepest set, are remarkable for their energy, their faithfulness, their zeal and their 
attention to the little things. 

" Learn first that whieh comes first." " Attend to one thinof at a time." " Do 
thoroughly what you attempt' to do at all." " Nip evil in the bud." " Be faithful 
in small matters." " Be firm, and yet bo mild." '' Be yourselves what you would 
liave your pupils become." These maxims he repeated again and again to those 
he was training to be teachers, in view of their prospective duties. And " Live 
to the Truth," — " Live to the Truth," was so ingrafted into our normal being 
that, should the mere walls of Normal Hall be tumbled to the earth, the last sound 
that would come from them, to our ears at least, would bo, " Live to the Truth." 



The following letter, addressed in 1851, by Mr. Peirce, to Hon. Henry- 
Barnard, then Superintendent of Common Schools in Connecticut, em- 
bodies his own views as to the aims of his labors as Principal of the Nor- 
mal School at Lexington, and West Newton. 

" Dear Sir: — You ask me 'what I aimed to accomplish, and would aim to 
accomplish now, with my past experience before rae, in a Normal School.' 

I answer brletiy, that it was my aim, and it would be my aim again, to make 
better teachers, and especially, better teachers for oar common schools ; so 
that those primary seminaries, on which so many depend for their education, 
might answer, in a higher degree, the end of their insiiiution . Yes, to make 
better teachers; teachers who would understand, and do their business better; 
teachers, who should know more of the nature of children, of youthful devel- 
opments, more of the subjects to be taught, and more of the true methods of 
teaching ; who would teach more philosophically, more in harmony with the 
natural development of the young mind, with a truer regard to the order and 
connection in which the different branches of knowledge should be presented to 
It, and, of course, more successfully. Again, I felt that there was a call for a 
truer government, a higher training and discipline, in our schools; that the ap- 
peal to the rod, to a sense of shame and fear of bodily pain, so prevalent in 
them, had a tendency to make children mean, secretive, and vengeful, instead 
of high-minded, truthful, and generous ; and I wished to see them in the hands 
of teachers, who could understand the higher and purer motives of action, as 
gratitude, generous atlection, sense of duty, by which children should be influ- 
enced, and under Avhich their whole character should be formed. In short, I 
was desirous of putting our schools into the hands of those who would make 
them places in which children could learn, not only to read, and write, and 
spell, and cipher, but gain information on various other topics, (as accounts, 
civil institutions, natural history, physiology, political economy, &c.) which 
would be useful to them in after life, and have all their faculties, (physical, 
intellectual and moral,) trained in such harmony and proportion, as woiild re- 
sult in the highest formation of character. This is what I supposed the object 
of Normal Schools to be. Such was my object. 

But in accepting the charge of the first American Institution of this kind, I 
did not act in the belief that there were no good teachers, or good schools 
among us ; or that I was more wise, more fit to teach, than all my fellows. On 
the contrary, I knew that there were, both within and without Massachusetts, 
excellent schools, and not a few of them, and teachers wiser than myself; yet 
my conviction was strong, that the ratio of such schools to the whole number of 
schools were small ; and that the teachers in them, for the most part, had grown 
up to be what they were, from long observation, and through the discipline of 
an experience painful to themselves, and more painful to their pupils. 

It was my impression also, that a majority of those engaged in school-keep- 
ing, taught few branches, and those imperfectly, that they possessed little fit- 
ness for their business, did not understand well, either the nature of children or 
the subjects they professed to teach, and had little skill in the art of teaching or 
governing schools. I could not think it possible for them, therefore, to make 



36 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 



their instructions very intelligible, interesting, or profitable to their pupils, or 
present to them the motives best adapted to secure good lessons and good con- 
duct, or, in a word, adopt such a course of training as would result in a sound 
development of the faculties, and the sure formation of a good character. I 
admitted that a skill and power to do all this might be acquired by trial, if 
teachers continued in their business long enough; but while teachers were thus 
learning, I was sure that pupils must be suffering. In the process of time, a 
man may find out by experiment, (trial,) how to tan hides and convert them into 
leather. But most likely the time would be long, and he would spoil many be- 
fore he got through. It would be far better for him, we know, to get some 
knowledge of Chemistry, and spend a little time in his neighbor's tannery, be- 
fore he sets up for himself In the same way, the farmer may learn what 
trees, and fruits, and seeds, are best suited to particular soils, and climates, and 
modes of culture, but it must be by a needless outlay of time and labor, and 
the incurring of much loss. If wise, he would first learn the principles and 
facts which agricultural experiments have already established, and then com- 
mence operations. So the more I considered the subject, the more the convic- 
tion grew upon my mind, that by a judicious course of study, and of discipline, 
teachers may be prepared to enter on their work, not only with the hope, but 
almost with the assurance of success. I did not then, I do not now, (at least 
in the fullest extent of it,) assent to the doctrine so often expressed in one form 
or another, that there are no genei'al prmciples to be recognized in education; 
no general methods to be followed in the art of teaching; that all depends upon 
the individual teacher; that every principle, motive and method, must owe its 
power to the skill with which it is applied; that what is true, and good, and 
useful in the hands of one, may be quite the reverse in the hands of another; 
and of course, that every man must invent his own methods of leaching and 
governing, it being impossible successfully to adopt those of another. To me 
it seemed that education had claims to be regarded as a science, being based on 
immutable principles, of which the practical teacher, ihough he may modify 
them to meet the change of ever-varying circumstances, can never lose sight. 

That the educator should watch the operations of nature, the development of 
the mind, discipline those faculties whose activities first appear, and teach that 
knowledge first, which the child can most easily comprehend, viz., that which 
comes in through the senses, rather than through reason and the imagi- 
nation ; that true education demands, or rather implies the training, strength- 
ening, and perfecting of all the faculties by means of the especial exer- 
cise of each; that in teaching, we must begin with what is simple and 
known, and go on by easy steps to what is complex and unknown ;- that for 
true progress and lasting results, it were better for the attention to be concen- 
trated on a few studies, and for a considerable time, than to be divided among 
many, changing from one to another at short intervals; that in training chil- 
dren we must concede a special recognition to the principle of curiosity, a love of 
knowledge, and so present truth as to keep this principle in proper action; that 
the pleasure of acquiring, and the advantage of possessing knowledge, may be 
made, and should be made, a sufficient stimulus to sustain wholesome exertion 
without resorting to emulation, or medals, or any rewards other than those 
which are the natural fruits of industry and attainment; that for securing order 
and obedience, there are better ways than to depend solely or chiefly upon the 
rod, or appeals to fear ; that much may be done by way of prevention of evil ; 
that gentle means should always first be tried ; that undue attention is given to 
intellectual training in our schools, to the neglect of physical and moral; that 
the training of the faculties is more important than the communication of 
knowledge ; that the discipline, the instruction of the school-room, should bet- 
ter subserve the interests of real life, than it now does ; — these are some of the 
principles, truths, facts, in education, susceptible, I think, of the clearest de- 
monstration, and pretty generally admitted now, by all enlightened educators. 

The old method of teaching Arithmetic, for instance, by taking up some 
printed treatise and solving abstract questions consisting of large numbers, 
working blindly by what must appear to the pupil arbitrary rules, would now 
be regarded as less philosophical, less in conformity to mental development, 
than the more modern way of beginning with mental Arithmetic, using practi- 
cal questions, which involve small numbers, and explaining the reason of eve- 
ry step as you go along. 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 



37 



So in the study of Grammar, no Normal teacher, whether a graduate or not, 
of a Normal School, would require his pupils to commit the whole text-book to 
memory, before looking at the nature of words, and their application in the 
structure ot sentences. Almost all have found out that memorizing the Gram- 
mar-book, and the exercise of parsing, do very little toward giving one a 
knowledge of the English language. 

Neither is it learning Geography, to read over and commit to memory, sta- 
tistics of the length and breadth of countries, their boundaries, latitude and lon- 
gitude, fee, &c., without map or globe, or any visible illustration, as was once 
the practice. Nor does the somewhat modern addition of maps and globes 
much help the process, unless the scholar, by a previous acquaintance with ob- 
jects in the outer world, has been prepared to use them. The shading for 
mountains, and black lines for rivers on maps. Mill be of little use to a child 
who has not already some idea of a mountain and a river. 

And the teacher who should attempt to teach reading by requiring a child to 
repeat from day to day, and from month to month, the whole alphabet, until he 
is familiar with all the letters, as was the fashion in former days, would de- 
serve to lose his place and be sent himself to school. Could any thing be more 
injudicious 1 Is it not more in harmony with Nature's work, to begin with sim- 
ple, significant words, or rather sentences, taking care always to select such as 
are easy and intelligible, as well as short 1 Or, if letters be taken first, should 
they not be formed into small groups, on some principle of association, and be 
combined with some visible object 1 

Surely, the different methods of teaching the branches above-mentioned, are 
not all equally good. Teaching is based on immutable principles, and may be 
regarded as an art. 

Nearly thirty years' experience in the business of teaching, I thought, had 
given me some acquaintance with its true principles and processes, and I deem- 
ed it no presumption to believe that I could teach them to others. This I at- 
tempted to do in the Normal School at Lexington ; 1st. didactically, i. c. by 
precept, in the form of familiar conversations and lectures ; Sd. by giving every 
day, and continually, in my own manner of teaching, an exemplification of my 
theory ; 3d. by requiring mv pupils to teach each other, in my presence, the 
thmgs which I had taught them; and 4th. by means of the Model School, 
where, under my general supervision, the Normal pupils had an opportmiity^ 
both to prove and to improve their skill in teaching and managing schools. At 
all our recitations, (the modes of which were very various,) and in other con- 
nections, there was allowed the greatest freedom "of inquiry and remark, and 
principles, modes, processes, every thing indeed relating to school-keeping, was 
discussed. The thoughts and opinions of each one were thus made the proper- 
ty ol the whole, and there was infused into all hearts a deeper and deeper inter- 
est in the teachers' calling. In this way the Normal School became a kind of 
standing Teachers' Institute. 

But for a particular accoimt of my manner and processes at the Normal 
School, allow me to refer you to a letter which I had the honor, at your request 
to address to you from Lexington, Jan. I, 1841, and which was published in 
the Common School Journal, both of Connecticut and Massachusetts, (vol. 3.) 

What success attended my labors, I must leave to others to say. I acknowl- 
edge, it was far from being satisfactory to myself Still the experiment con- 
vinced me that Normal Schools may be made a powerful auxiliary to the cause 
of education. A thorough training in them, I am persuaded, will do much to- 
ward supplymg the want of experience. It will make the teachers' work easier, 
surer, better. I have reason to believe that Normal pupils are much indebted 
for whatever of fitness they possess for teaching, to the Normal School. They 
imiformly profess so to feel. I have, moreover, made diligent inquiry in regard 
to their success, and it is no exaggeration to say, that it has been manifestly 
great. Strong testimonials to the success of many of the early graduates of the 
Lexmgton (now W. Newton) Normal School, were published with the 8th Re- 
port of the late Secretary of the Board of Education, and may be found in the 
7th vol. of the Massachusetts Common School Journal. 

But it is sometimes asked, (and the inquiry deserves an answer,) Allowing 
that teaching IS an art, and that teachers may be trained for their business, 
have we not High Schools and Academies, in which the various school branch- 
es are well taught 1 May not teachers in them be prepared for their work 1 



38 



CYRUS PEIRCE. 



Where is the need then of a distinct order of Seminaries for training teachers *? 
I admit we have Academies, High Schools, and other schools, furnished with 
competent teachers, in which is excellent leaching; but at the time of the es- 
tablishment of the Normal Schools in Massachusetts, there was not, to my 
knowledge, any first-rate institution exclusively devoted to training teachers 
for our common schools; neither do I think there is now any, except the Nor- 
mal Schools. And teachers can not be prepared for their work anywhere else, 
so well as in seminaries exclusively devoted to this object. The art of teach- 
ing must be made the great, the paramount, the only concern. It must not 
come in as subservient to, or merely collateral with any thing else whatever. 
And again, a Teachers' Seminary should have annexed to it, or rather as an 
integral part of it, a model, or experimental school for practice. 

Were I to be placed in a Normal School again, the only difference in my 
aim would be to giv^e more attention to the development of the faculties, to 
the spirit and motives by which a teacher should be moved, to physical and 
moral education, to the inculcation of good principles and good manners. 

In conclusion, allow me to recapitulate. It was i^' aim, and it would be my 
aim again, in a Normal School, to raise up for our common schools especially, 
a better class of teachers, — teachers who would not only teach more and better 
than those already in the field, but who would govern better; teachers, who 
would teach in harmony with the laws of juvenile developiment, who would se- 
cure diligent study and good lessons and sure progress, without a resort to emula- 
tion and premiums, and good order iVom higher motives than the fear of the rod or 
bodily pain ; teachers, who could not only instruct well in the common branch- 
es, as reading, writing, arithmetic, 6cc., but giv^e valuable information on a va- 
riety of topics, such as accounts, history, civil institutions, political economy, 
and physiology; bring into action the various powers of children, and prepare 
them for the duties of practical life ; teachers, whose whole influence on their 
pupils, direct and indirect, should be good, tending to make them, not only good 
readers, geographers, grammarians, arithmeticians, &c., .but good scholars, 
good children, obedient, kind, respectful, mannerly, truthful; and in due time, 
virtuous, useful citizens, kind neighbors, high-minded, noble, pious men and 
women. And this I attempted to do by inculcating the truth in the art of teach- 
ing and governing, — the truth in all things ; and by giving them a living exam- 
ple of it in my own practice." 



f 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




022 139 966 3 



THE 



l^mcrirau |aunial of ^huatioiu 

No. XI. — DECEMBER, 1857. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Portrait of Ctrus Peirce 273 

I. Memoir of Otrus Peirce J275 

II. Cultivation OF TUE Reflective Faculties. By William Ru.ssell. Continued. .. 309 

III. Influence of Pestalozzi on the Popular Schools of Germany 341 

IV. The Hieronymians, or Brethren of the Common iife. From tlie German of 

Itarl A'on Raumer 357 

V. National Education in Ireland 364 

VI. Laura Bridgman. By S. G. Howe, Superintendent of Perkins Asylum for the 

Blind.. 381 

VIT. Educational System of .Iohn Storm. From the German of Karl Von Raumer. 

Concluded 401 

A'lll. New York State Institution for Idiots 410 

Illustration^ Perspective of Building 416 

IX. Educational Views of BIartin Luther. By Karl Von Raumer 421 

1. Home GoToniment, and Training of Children 421 

2. Bad Training 424 

3. Monkish Training of the Young 426 

4. Ofleucc given to Children 226 

5. Degenerate Children 428 

6. Lawful Disobedience 429 

7. Schools — Address to the Town Councils of Germany 430 

8. Duty of School Attendance of Cliildren 440 

9. Dignity and Difficulty of the work of Teaching 441 

10. Plan for School Organization 442 

II. Universities 442 

12. The Bible 443 

13. Languages 444 

14. Natural Sciences.. 445 

15. History , 445 

16. Logic... '..: 445 

17. Mathematics 448 

18. Physical Exercise 448 

19. Music ' 449 

X. Erasmus on Classical Culture. From the Gcrm.an of Karl Von Raumer 450 

XI. Montaigne on Learning and Education. By Karl Von Raumer ; 401 

XII. Public Instruction in Sardinia. By Prof. V. Botta. Concluded 479 

XIII. Catechism of Methods of Teaching. Continued'^ 505 

9. Geography. By Abbcrrode '. 505 

10. History. By Abbcrrode 512 

XIV. Woodward City High School op Cincinnati 520 

Illustrations 622 

XV. Cooper Institute— or Union of Art and Science — New York 526 



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